Friday, July 22, 2011

Having gotten home from roller derby practice tonight at 11:30 covered in sweat and unable to yet go to sleep, I decided to write up a short blog post while I cool down before a quick shower.

Below are a few simple browser-based games I use as occasional time wasters, many with educational potential as well. Note: none (with the possible exception of Global Resistance) are of the Farmville and or Facebook game ilk, which I have a distaste for

Sissy's Magical Ponycorn Adventure: a simple, whimsical game recalling the innocence and pure imagination of childhood, made by a 5 year old and her dad. Isn't this a great project for a parent and child to work on collaboratively? Recalls a brief article from Wired magazine (Clive Thompson on Coding for the Masses) that backhandedly calls for coding to become a curriculum requirement; to help educate the masses in digital literacy issues as well as beef up grassroots problem solving in this country.

Haiku Hero: simple: make haiku's in survival, deadline or endless mode, but you must use words provided by the game and you get rated on quality.

Global Resistance: no educational value at all! Is a social-strategic war game that ties into the upcoming Resistance 3 console game. So far shows a good balance of cooperative and competitive play and and simple strategic play.

Knoword: a simple word game where you're given a definition and the first letter of the word and you have to fill in the rest of the word within a time limit to move on to the next word. Fun and helps build vcabulary at the same time!

Rebuild: a tough to master but easy to pick up strategy and Civilization-type game where you need to manage, equip and train an expanding group of survivors of a zombie outbreak, scavenge for supplies, and maintain and expand control of the city.

BattlePaint: addictive space shooter where you shoot increasing waves of paint and their "blood" when you kill them creates abstract art on the battle field.

About Me

I'm an academic instruction librarian providing services for mostly working adult distance learners at a state college. Our library is completely online (gasp! no print materials at all). I'm also an avid video gamer and play competitive roller derby on the side.